Text
My family and I enjoy the outdoors; we hike, kayak and rock climb as much as possible. We received our first kayak as a gift from my father-in-law, and by the time Harvey hit we each had our own. Since my father-in-law lives in Towne Lake, we kept our kayaks there. On the night of August 28th, it was announced that the Army Corps of Engineers would be releasing water from the reservoir, we knew we were going to get some water in the house. We didn’t think it would do much damage, after all during the Tax Day flood our streets flooded but didn’t even get near our sidewalks. How bad could it be? We decided not to leave. My husband and I took turns worrying in front of the television screen, I’d wake up from dozing off and he kept me updated on the reports. By 5:18 a.m. on the 29th of August the water was up to our door, and water was still going to be released yet again, and it just would NOT stop raining. Still in denial, even after seeing the water up to our door, I laid back on the couch and let my husband know that I was going back to sleep because it would stop soon, how much more rain could fall? Well, he let me know that things were already floating around in the garage, and that’s when it finally processed in my brain. We had to leave. At 8:00 a.m. I called my dad to meet us at the end of our neighborhood, closer to his house, to pick us up. We each had a bag packed, we went out through the back door and began walking through the murky water, with that continuous rain and the sound of helicopters above us. Surely I was dreaming, I had watched people get rescued from high water for the last 4 days on television, I was sleep deprived and thinking, hoping, this can’t be happening TO ME. We walked towards the major street, by this time other neighbors were doing the same, some still deciding what to do standing outside of their house.
The summer before Harvey, in 2016, my family and I drove to Utah and went on a National Park tour. One of the most beautiful places we’ve ever visited, Zion National Park, is known for the hiking trail The Narrows. This trail is none like I’ve ever seen, a hike that takes to the bottom of Zion Canyon-the name given describes the hike alongside the riverbed and the narrow walls of the canyon. I shouldn’t compare this to walking through flooded street waters, but we had our hiking gear on and as I was recording with my cell phone and falling behind my family-I felt some of the same feelings. The same heaviness in my legs that comes when walking against the current, the disbelief of what I’m experiencing (obviously Zion was a wonderful disbelief), and even the same realization that I’m not the only one experiencing this!
By the 31st of August we were able to get our kayaks from my father in law. Anxiously wanting to find out exactly how much damage was done to our home, of course praying for the best but preparing our minds for the worse, my husband and I kayaked down the streets from my parents house towards ours. We kayaked the streets we walk on weekend mornings. We kayaked through the greenbelt that we used as a shortcut when we walk to my parent’s house-it looked like we lived in a swampland. I cried as I saw our houses marked with bright orange C’s and H’s-the marks on the doors, windows and even trees were indicators for rescuers to know whether people were home or cleared. We literally kayaked INTO our house and saw the damage for ourselves for the first time. We only had 14 inches of water in our house, I say only because I had friends and family that had 4-5 feet of water in their house. It took us only 6 months to get back into our home, again, I say only because some people still aren’t back. During the time it took to rebuild, we stayed with my parents, they live in the same neighborhood but were fortunate to not have flooded. I can’t thank my friends, family, and volunteer organizations enough for their help, I can never repay what was given to us-but from the bottom of our hearts we are forever grateful. Needless to say, we haven’t kayaked since then. We’ve gone on camping trips and hiked but I still don’t have a desire to get into a kayak. When I am able to unsee that murky water that took over my home and vehicles, I’ll try kayaking again.
The summer before Harvey, in 2016, my family and I drove to Utah and went on a National Park tour. One of the most beautiful places we’ve ever visited, Zion National Park, is known for the hiking trail The Narrows. This trail is none like I’ve ever seen, a hike that takes to the bottom of Zion Canyon-the name given describes the hike alongside the riverbed and the narrow walls of the canyon. I shouldn’t compare this to walking through flooded street waters, but we had our hiking gear on and as I was recording with my cell phone and falling behind my family-I felt some of the same feelings. The same heaviness in my legs that comes when walking against the current, the disbelief of what I’m experiencing (obviously Zion was a wonderful disbelief), and even the same realization that I’m not the only one experiencing this!
By the 31st of August we were able to get our kayaks from my father in law. Anxiously wanting to find out exactly how much damage was done to our home, of course praying for the best but preparing our minds for the worse, my husband and I kayaked down the streets from my parents house towards ours. We kayaked the streets we walk on weekend mornings. We kayaked through the greenbelt that we used as a shortcut when we walk to my parent’s house-it looked like we lived in a swampland. I cried as I saw our houses marked with bright orange C’s and H’s-the marks on the doors, windows and even trees were indicators for rescuers to know whether people were home or cleared. We literally kayaked INTO our house and saw the damage for ourselves for the first time. We only had 14 inches of water in our house, I say only because I had friends and family that had 4-5 feet of water in their house. It took us only 6 months to get back into our home, again, I say only because some people still aren’t back. During the time it took to rebuild, we stayed with my parents, they live in the same neighborhood but were fortunate to not have flooded. I can’t thank my friends, family, and volunteer organizations enough for their help, I can never repay what was given to us-but from the bottom of our hearts we are forever grateful. Needless to say, we haven’t kayaked since then. We’ve gone on camping trips and hiked but I still don’t have a desire to get into a kayak. When I am able to unsee that murky water that took over my home and vehicles, I’ll try kayaking again.
Creator
Maria Nevarez
Title
Kayaking into our house
Type
personal narratives
Language
en
Rights
This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license.
Source
This item was contributed via the Harvey Memories Project "Contribute an Item" form.
Date Created
2018-08-24
Date Submitted
2018-08-24
Date Available
2018-08-25
Spatial Coverage
+29.859229-095.621534/
Wheatbridge Drive
Temporal Coverage
start=2017-08-28; end=2017-08-31; scheme=ISO 8601;